I started writing about innovators in Boston’s big data scene in the earliest days of Riparian. Researching what other companies were building, analyzing, and selling provided me with a narrative to what might otherwise still be a murky set of concepts. It also introduced me to some fascinating ideas—Bluefin Labs’ TV Genome and Recorded Future’s event forecasting come to mind. And so, nearly two months in to my New York sojourn, I’m expanding this series in the hopes of making the acquaintance of these companies’ NYC equivalents.

Some people like to say that New York and Boston are rivals. When it comes to sports, I think this is valid; when it comes to technology, I think it’s silly. By and large, the technology each city produces serves different sectors—life sciences, healthcare, and higher ed in Boston, fashion, media, finance, and consumer web in New York. Of course, there are exceptions (there are always exceptions)—but exceptions are testaments to heterogeneity, not (usually) harbingers of power shifts. Four of the following companies serve one or more of the city’s main sectors; the fifth serves higher ed, a sector that, especially these days, needs to be better served everywhere.

Product: Timehop is a memory-dredger: the service emails its users a daily newsletter telling them what they were doing a year ago based on data pulled from their Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, and Facebook profiles.

Product: 2tor creates custom web and mobile platforms that enable universities to offer online degree and education programs. 2tor’s instructional designers work directly with university faculty to develop and evolve each program, and the company provides and maintains all support infrastructure.